Hard Choices

Challenging the Singapore Consensus

Donald Low and Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh

Publication Year: 2014

The Singapore polity is changing – profoundly and probably irrevocably. The consensus that the PAP government constructed and maintained over five decades is fraying. The assumptions that underpin Singaporean exceptionalism are no longer accepted as easily and readily as before. Among these are the ideas that the country is uniquely vulnerable, that this vulnerability limits its policy and political options, that good governance demands a degree of political consensus that ordinary democratic arrangements cannot ensure, and that the country’s success requires a competitive meritocracy accompanied by relatively little income or wealth redistribution. But the policy and political conundrums that Singapore faces today are complex and defy easy answers. Confronted with a more critical and sceptical public and a political landscape that is likely to become more contested, how will politics and policymaking in Singapore evolve? What reforms should the government pursue? This collection of essays suggests that a far-reaching and radical rethinking of the country's policies and institutions is necessary, even if it weakens the very consensus that enabled Singapore to succeed in its first 50 years.

Title Page, Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

Singapore’s economic success masks some uncomfortable truths about
life in this city-state. While per capita GDP has risen astronomically
(by some estimates, it is the highest in the world today), Singapore is
also one of the most unequal societies among developed economies.
Incomes at the bottom are relatively low by rich country standards.
Meanwhile for many Singaporeans, the country’s impressive material...

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without a great deal of help
from many people. Most importantly, we would like to thank Linda
Lim and Thum Ping Tjin for their contributions. Their essays add
immeasurably to the diversity of this book and expanded significantly
the range of expert opinion represented here. Peter Schoppert, the
Director of NUS Press, provided invaluable advice throughout the...

Contributors

Introduction: Reframing Policy and Political Debates in Singapore

Singapore is in the midst of a profound economic and sociopolitical
transition. This began around the turn of the century and accelerated
after the 2011 General Election (GE 2011). A number of global and
domestic forces are converging to create a different political and policy
landscape in Singapore—a “new normal” in the words of Dr Tony Tan,
Singapore’s president, just before his election in August 2011. These
forces are changing the nature of governance and policymaking in...

PART 1 The Limits of Singapore Exceptionalism

1 The Four Myths of Inequality in Singapore

Whether measured by the Gini coefficient, or by the ratio of incomes
between the top and bottom quintiles, the evidence points to an
incontrovertible fact: income inequality in Singapore has risen significantly
in the last ten years or so. While this fact is beyond dispute,
there is little agreement in the government on whether it represents a
problem that merits serious policy...

2 How Land and People Fit Together in Singapore's Economy

The ongoing debate about Singapore’s population policy provides a
timely opportunity to reconsider how different pieces of our economic
growth model fit—or do not fit—together.1
GDP (output) growth in any country comes from increases in
inputs (primarily land, labour, and capital) and/or increases in the
productivity of those inputs. As noted by various economists, Singapore’s
GDP growth has depended more on input than productivity...

3 Economic Myths in the Great Population Debate

The debate on the Population White Paper has surfaced a number
of myths and fallacies that seems to dominate the current discussion
on Singapore’s population policies. Economics provides us with a very
useful set of analytical tools to clarify thinking and to develop sensible,...

4 Good Meritocracy, Bad Meritocracy

Meritocracy is widely regarded as a core principle of governance in
Singapore. Basic disagreement over it was one of the reasons why
Singapore separated from Malaysia. The meritocracy principle—
equalising opportunities not outcomes and allocating rewards
on the basis of an individual’s merit, abilities, and achievements—is as
close as anything gets to being a national...

5 The End of Identity?

China-born Singapore citizen Feng Tian Wei’s Olympic table tennis
bronze medal in 2012 sparked an outcry. Many Singaporeans
expressed the view that they feel no sense of pride about the country’s
first individual Olympic medal in four decades. What then does it
mean to be a “true”...

PART 2 Policy Alternatives for Post-Consensus Singapore

6 What's wrong with Singaporeans?

The recent population policy debate has thrown up a number of references
to the inadequacy of Singaporeans—by quantity or quality—for
many jobs in the country, resulting in the heavy dependence on
foreign workers (both labour and talent) that has caused such controversy.
In this essay I focus narrowly on examining the common assertion...

7 Adapting to Our Population Challenges

In Robert Zemeckis’s 1989 blockbuster, Back to the Future II, Marty
McFly and Doc Brown travel to the year 2015. The future that was
depicted in the movie bears some similarities to our world today: ubiquitous
security cameras, wall-mounted flat-screen TVs, the ability to
watch six channels at the same time, video games that do not require
the use of hands, and the popularity of plastic surgery. But many
other features of the future imagined by Zemeckis and his team are...

8 Rethinking Singapore's Housing Policies

Public housing policies in Singapore have been highly successful in
enabling home ownership for the majority of Singaporeans and in
giving citizens a stake in the country. The proportion of the resident
population living in public housing is about 85 per cent, of which the
large majority (around 95 per cent) own the flats they occupy. Equally
notable is the fact that the opportunity to own homes has not been...

9 Beware the Inequality Trap

Whether measured by the Gini coefficient or by the ratio of incomes
between the top and bottom 20 per cent, the evidence points to
increasing income inequality in Singapore in the last decade. Government
redistribution in the form of taxes and transfers has not slowed
the increase in inequality sufficiently. Even after taking into account...

10 New Options in Social Security

Singapore’s social security system is premised on the principles of individual
and family responsibility, community help (sometimes referred
to as the “Many Helping Hands Approach”), and government assistance
as a safety net of last resort. Besides housing and healthcare,
the main expressions of our social security system are the Central...

PART 3 Governance and Democracy: Past, Present & Future

11 The Old Normal is the New Normal

Between 1955 (Singapore’s first election for partial self-government)
and 1963 (Singapore’s independence from Britain), Singaporeans
went to the polls an average of once a year: three general elections,
four by-elections, one City Council election, and one National
Referendum. Through these intensely contested, open, and fair elections,
the people held the government accountable. Competing parties...

12 What Went Wrong for the Pap in 2011?

With a 75.3 per cent vote, the People’s Action Party (PAP) won a
landslide victory at the 2001 General Election (GE 2011). Held soon
after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the collapse of the US tech
bubble, it showed that in times of crisis, Singaporeans turn instinctively
to the trusted hands of the...

13 Governing in the New Normal

The two elections of 2011 herald a significant shift in the political
values, attitudes and aspirations of Singaporeans. While the People’s
Action Party (PAP) and its preferred candidate for the presidency were
returned to power, it would be a mistake for the PAP Government to
assume that it can return to the business of governance along the technocratic
lines it is used...

14 The Future of Democracy in Singapore

The essays in this book have offered several reasons why greater
democratisation will benefit Singapore. First, more established channels
of dialogue, including the media and civil society institutions, will
allow the political elite to bridge what Singaporean author Catherine
Lim called in the mid-1990s the “great affective divide” between ordinary
Singaporeans and the PAP (People’s Action Party). This divide...

15 Liberal Ideas in the New Normal

Right after the 2011 General Election (GE 2011), it was probably
fair to say most liberals and progressives in Singapore believed that
the policy and institutional changes that they wished to see would
be best advanced by the incumbent PAP government. Most, I think,
subscribed to the view that it was preferable for these changes to
be driven from within, rather than forced on the government from...

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